Road to Heaven
Click on images for larger view
When we first envisioned Road to Heaven for the R97 festival, we expected to stage a simple cabaret piece that would be a revue of some of our most interesting work from past performances. What we eventually created was a production that was much more complex and filled with emotion. The piece is set in an impressionistic nursing home and is a meditation on youth and age. The costumes range from French aristocratic to 19th century American pioneer in the beginning of the show, to all white towards the end that evoke both old age and infancy. Much of the music - Dylan's "Forever Young", the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" and Phil Ochs' "Changes" (sung to a slide-show accompaniment of childhood photos) - takes on surprising new layers of meaning when sung by older adults and put in this stunning visual context.
Young at Heart Chorus in Road to Heaven
Staged by No Theater
September, 1997 - R’97 Festival
Theater Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam,The Netherlands
November, 1997 - Academy of Music Theater
Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
April, 1998 - Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts/Forum Theater
Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA
May/June 1998 - Theater Lantaren/Venster/Rotterdam
The Netherlands; A/D Werf Festival/ Utrecht, the Netherlands; Nieuwpoorttheater/Gent, Belgium
June, 1999 - Nieuwpoorttheater/Gent & Belgian Concert tour to Kortrijk,Brussels & Ieper
October, 1999 - Theater 14/Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
November, 1999 -Theaterfestival Spielart/Marstall Theater
München, Germany
May, 2000 - Hebbel Theater
Berlin, Germany
October, 2000 - Restless Gravity International Performance
Festival/Aberystwyth Arts Center, Aberystwyth, Wales
November 2000 - London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT)/Lyric Theatre
Hammersmith London England
May, 2001 - Festpillene i Bergen/Teatergarasjen
Bergen, Norway
June, 2001 - Festival De Théâtre Des Amériques/Salle-Pierre Mercure,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
May, 2002 - Brugge2002/ Stadsschouwburg
Brugge,Belgium
August, 2002 - Zürcher Theater Spektakel/Werft Halle
Zurich, Switzerland
October, 2003 - Melbourne International Festival of the Arts/The Playhouse, Melbourne, Australia
October,2003 - Road to Heaven@Hawaii Theatre
Honolulu Hawaii
September, 2004 - De (Internationale) Keuze van de Rotterdamse Schouwburg2004 Oude Luxor Theater
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Young at Heart Chorus in Road to Heaven
Staged by No Theater